Bill Marx

Fuse Theater Review: A Mildly Amusing “Third Story”

August 13, 2012
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There are plenty of amusing moments when dramatist Charles Busch makes effective use of his gift for exaggerated wit and whimsy — no dramatist can drop the word ‘canasta’ with as much hilarious finesse.

Theater Commentary/Review: A Not So Dumb “Month in The Country”

August 10, 2012
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Given the Russian writer’s modernist pedigree, should director/playwright Richard Nelson and translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky be punished for putting some “unevenesses” into their staging of Turgenev’s finest play, “A Month in the Country”? I think not.

Theater Review: A “Coriolanus” Cut Down to Size on the Boston Common

August 4, 2012
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Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” deals with the difficultly of recognizing superiority at a time of radical social breakdown, specifically when it is democracy that is in extremis.

Fuse Commentary: The Demise of Arts and Culture on WGBH — Hypocrisy in Plain Sight

July 28, 2012
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Discard the empty rhetoric about “amplifying the arts,” follow the money and you will eventually find, winding your way through all the obfuscation and spin, WGBH’s thrifty corporate character.

Arts Commentary: “The New York Times” — Shouldn’t It Know the Purpose of Arts Criticism?

July 17, 2012
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Based on Public Editor Arthur S. Brisbane’s recent New York Times column on arts criticism, he and others at the newspaper haven’t much of a clue regarding what a serious arts review is supposed to be.

Cultural Commentary — Northrop Frye at 100

July 14, 2012
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Northrop Frye, inspired by the poet William Blake, demands that the critic be a warrior in a “mental fight,” articulating the liberating value of literature as a source of imaginative energy that generates possibilities.

Fuse Commentary: WGBH — No Excuses

July 9, 2012
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WGBH is not even attempting to make any excuses, not bothering to put in the energy to explain why the station isn’t using funding from its supporters to hire first-class journalists or to create news programming that builds community and educates because it challenges, investigates, and digs deeper.

Theater Review: An Energetic But Erratic “Polaroid Stories”

July 8, 2012
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My impression is of a trio of rough-but-ready theater groups spoiling for some nervy, in-yer-face theatrical action. That is the way it should be.

Fuse Commentary: What Does WGBH Do When It Cuts Back On The Arts? It Celebrates, Of Course.

July 2, 2012
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Jazz is dying on WGBH — long live the arts, and let us all eat cake financed by Citizens Bank at the upcoming Arts Weekend, created by WGBH and The Boston Globe

The Arts Fuse Turns 5: The Future of Arts Journalism is Now. Help Us Make it Happen.

June 24, 2012
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As a long time arts critic for print, broadcast, and the Web, the potential for cultural coverage online strikes me then and now as exhilarating. The challenge for The Arts Fuse is to foster dialogue that articulates the value of the arts in our lives.

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